Republic Days in the post 1997 period Turkey : commemorative activities as embodied and contested interventions to the imaginary terrain of the 'nation'

This thesis explores the Republic Day holiday celebrations and their representations in three newspapers; Zaman, Hürriyet and Cumhuriyet in the post-1997 period from a perspective which argues that commemorative activities are a point onto which interventions signify both embodiment and contestation for the ‘national imaginary’. To this end, this thesis examines the differences in the way various nationalistic discourses relate to the ‘national imaginary’ by employing various presences in the terrain of the Republic Day holiday. Resulting from this analysis, this thesis argues that the differences in the way various ideological positions relate to the Republi day holiday do not lessen, in fact strengthen the function of the Republic Day holiday in the reconstruction and reimagining of the terrain of the ‘nation’, since the differences in ‘national imaginary’ are expressed via interventions to the Republic Day holiday which thus occurs as a legitimate referent ‘of the nation.’